... in all fairness, even Dr. Atkins did not recommend anyone with a preexisting kidney problem to be on this diet. There are some studies that indicate that the low carb approach accelerates problems for people who already have kidney disease... the good news is that these same studies showed that the low carb approach was perfectly safe for people with normal kidney function.

I do bloodwork every 3 months, just to be sure that everything is going right. Y'know no matter who's selling it and how wonderful it sounds, a dose of healthy skepticism doesn't hurt. Naturally, so far everything has checked out normally for me.

I do a full lipid panel and a metabolic panel testing liver and kidney functions as well as testing for potassium and calcium.

It is true to my knowledge that there is very little research on doing a severely low carb diet (such as Induction) for long term, but the diet is not designed to be that way for long term.

One of the bad habits that we low-carbers can have (and I do) is a fondness for smoked meats. The concern with colon cancer is valid if our diet has too many processed meats. My husband and I love summer sausage and bacon, slim jims, hard salami, pepperoni--all tasty, all low carb, but all with nitrates/nitrites, unless you go for the expensive stuff--I think that we're going to need to switch to the Natural food stores for non-nitrate/nitrite smoked meats.

I have found that Jimmy Dean fresh pork sausage is pretty darn natural with no nitrates or nitrites. You can find fresh chorizo and bratwurst also without the additives. Watch for MSG, though.

The other known health issue that can be aggravated by Atkins is gout. I believe it can be aggravated by organ meats, high fat, and by not enough vegetables. Sometimes it's easy to skimp on the veggies when you have satiated yourself with nice rich meats and cheeses, but it's important to balance the diet out with the low-carb veggies.

I confess that I eat more vegetables now than I did before, and that makes me very happy. The big bags of iceberg salad mix in the refrigerator don't rot any more!

I also confess that I buy the prepackaged salad mix that has the carrots and cabbage mixed in, but I think that there is such a small amount of carrot that it hasn't really made a difference in weight loss... I've used this stuff since I first started on Atkins, usually 2 cups per sitting, and never stalled due to it.

One more health concern, as it has been pointed out in other articles, is that there is a ton of low-carb junk food on the market that is loaded with the trans-fats that everyone agrees is not good for you... Just because it is in a natural food store or advertised as low-carb, doesn't necessarily mean it is good whole food. It's easy enough to indulge in the same types of food--chocolate, low-carb bars and baked goods, etc.--that have other health concerns associated with them, plus the potential for addiction, stalling out, and leaning back towards bad things...

At this point in my diet, I am struggling with getting back to the whole foods because I have sampled some really great tasting low-carb "junk." Not all of it is junk, but I know that some of it is--particularly the chocolate.

!~#$% you, Russell Stover!!

The jury's still out on the pork rinds (they are really tasty with 2 tbsp l/c salsa, 2 tbsp sour cream, 2 tbsp guacamole)... not sure what sort of potential health threats they have, being cooked at such a high temp, but I will say that I looked at the acrylamide listing that the FDA put out and the pork rinds they had listed had very little in comparison to the other foods tested.

So that's my 2 cents on the matter.